Musician-Actor In ‘American Film’ Docu Was 53 – Deadline

Mike Schank, a musician who was featured prominently in American Film, the cult 1999 documentary that received an enormous prize on the Sundance Movie Pageant, has died. He was 53.

His shut pal, Jackie Bogenberger, advised the Related Press that Schank died October 13 after a months-long battle with most cancers. A number of big-name actors and filmmaker mourned Schank on social media; learn a sampling under.

Director Doug Smith’s American Film premiered on the 1999 Sundance Movie Pageant and received the Grand Jury Prize — the primary of a number of competition and critics’ awards and nominations it might glean. It centered on aspiring filmmaker Mark Borchardt’s makes an attempt to finance his dream mission by finishing Coven, the low-budget horror quick movie he’d deserted years earlier than. Schank co-starred as his finest pal since childhood, a guitarist and recovering substance abuser who was among the many most dependable members of Borchardt’s crew.

He additionally supplied a much-lauded scream for Coven whose recording was featured within the documentary. Watch a trailer American Film under, with Schank’s scream on the 3:04 mark.

Schank’s deadpan supply and aw-shucks appeal made him a preferred character, and he went on to land a handful of movie and TV roles, most notably a visitor spots as himself in a 2006 episode of Household Man. Creator Seth MacFarlane solid Schenk and Borchardt in “Brian Sings and Swings” as a part of Quagmire’s filmmaking workforce who try secretly to doc interplay between Meg and her new pal Sarah, who’s a part of an afterschool membership known as the Lesbian Alliance.

Schenk and Borchardt additionally appeared within the 2002 indie comedy Britney, Child, One Extra Time. Schank had bit roles in different options together with Black Licorice, Hamlet A.D.D., Small Change, Modus Operandi and a few quick movies. He tweeted in August that he’d been clear and sober for 27 years.

Borchardt tweeted a short remembrance of his pal, which garnered about 4,000 likes and scores of feedback:

https://twitter.com/morethescarier/status/1580713093788639233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank

Numerous celebrities additionally remembered Schank on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/TaikaWaititi/status/1580784928412749824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank

https://twitter.com/edgarwright/status/1580691563214434309?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank